OS2 World Community Forum

OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Setup & Installation => Topic started by: karotlopj on April 26, 2016, 11:34:00 am

Title: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: karotlopj on April 26, 2016, 11:34:00 am
How should I go about partitioning and installing OS/2 on a 320GB disk?

I don't think I can create a bootable partition using the whole disk. Is that correct? I read something about a 1024 cylinder limit which I didn't understand.
Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: Matt Walsh on April 29, 2016, 06:13:26 pm
Just partition it as JFS bootable if you have eCS 2 or above.  If you only have OS/2 Warp 4 you'll have to use HPFS and 64 gig is the limit there.  HTH
Matt W.
Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: Pete on April 29, 2016, 09:09:51 pm
Hi John

You may want to consider splitting the drive into several volumes eg:-

boot - smallish volume for OS installation, 2Gb is more than enough space
data - probably the biggest volume; 320-2(boot)-100(apps)=218Gb?
apps - large enough for current apps plus space to spare for future apps - 100Gb?

Obviously size of volumes is something you will have to decide.

The above allows you to update/totally trash the boot volume without any worrying about your data and installed apps. Of course, you should still make regular backups of *all* volumes just in case of disk failure.


Regards

Pete


 
Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: Greggory Shaw on April 30, 2016, 06:25:46 am
This layout takes care of most things needed.

http://os2notes.net/os2installing.html
Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: karotlopj on May 04, 2016, 02:12:39 pm
Just partition it as JFS bootable if you have eCS 2 or above.  If you only have OS/2 Warp 4 you'll have to use HPFS and 64 gig is the limit there.  HTH
Matt W.

I have been unable to create a 320GB partition on the disk using LVM.

I do have the JFS add-on from ARCA NOAE so that I can create a bootable JFS drive but creating the partition is the problem.
Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: Pete on May 04, 2016, 04:29:42 pm
Hi John

Maybe if you go through the steps you are taking in trying to create a partition/volume someone will spot the problem.

I would not use JFS-1.09.06 to create a bootable volume myself - I would not use that JFS driver at all because I have found several problems with it the worst of which is that it can simply "lose" a volume at boot. I have been told this problem is more likely to be Shutdown related but as it only happens with  JFS-1.09.06 I have gone for the practical route of not using that driver.


Regards

Pete






Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: Andreas Schnellbacher on May 04, 2016, 05:22:12 pm
The current JFS version 1.09.06 works well for me - and apparently for many others.

Just always try the newest drivers from AN first. As I wrote before, eCS 2.2 beta 2 plus the newest AN drivers simplify probably all your problems.
Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: karotlopj on May 04, 2016, 05:49:19 pm
The current JFS version 1.09.06 works well for me - and apparently for many others.

How do you identify the JFS version?
Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: Pete on May 04, 2016, 09:58:29 pm
Hi John

Open a command line window in [boot]:\os2 and enter

bldlevel jfs.ifs


Regards

Pete
Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: Andreas Schnellbacher on May 04, 2016, 09:58:51 pm
Code: [Select]
epm: I:\Download\ArcaNoae\JFS-1.09.06 > bldlevel jfs.ifs
Build Level Display Facility Version 6.12.675 Sep 25 2001
(C) Copyright IBM Corporation 1993-2001
Signature:       @#D Azarewicz:1.09.06#@##1## 2014/11/12 15:16:39      DAZAR1    ::::06::@@ JFS/eCS (c) D Azarewicz 2013
Vendor:          D Azarewicz
Revision:        1.09.06
Date/Time:       2014/11/12 15:16:39   
Build Machine:   DAZAR1   
File Version:    1.9.6
Description:     JFS/eCS (c) D Azarewicz 2013
Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: Pete on May 04, 2016, 10:15:11 pm
Hi Andreas

Wish I knew what the cause of the occasional "lost" volume problem was exactly - all I know is that it is something that happens with the current AN JFS release and not with earlier versions of JFS.

The other thing wrong, as far as I am concerned, with the current AN JFS release is that it is no longer possible to force a chkdsk at boot. This means that if my "headless" server crashes running that build of JFS I would need to attach a spare monitor, keyboard and mouse and then boot from alternative media, eg an eCS install cd, in order to chkdsk the drive.

What a performance! - No, I'll stick with an earlier JFS that works without losing a volume during boot every now and again for no obvious reason and also has support for the /AUTOCHECK+* switch.


Regards

Pete


Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: Andreas Schnellbacher on May 04, 2016, 10:36:08 pm
Hi Pete,

I 've read all your bug reports about that. After all, I suppose you have problems with your hardware, as David wrote, AFAIR. I hope you'll find that soon before you lose any data. I hate to say that, but I myself had too many hardware issues in the past, where I thought first that the software is the culprit. The most recent example is FireFox.
Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: Pete on May 05, 2016, 03:27:46 am
Hi Andreas

The same problem on 2 different desktops and 2 different laptops?

No, it is not the hardware.

If the JFS driver itself is not at fault then I suspect that the driver is exposing a problem with other related system software.

I am inclined towards the JFS driver being at fault but suspect that may be because the os2ahci driver from AN is also a non-worker here.


Regards

Pete


Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: Dave Yeo on May 05, 2016, 04:08:32 am

I have been unable to create a 320GB partition on the disk using LVM.

You probably need an OS/2 friendly MBR with CHS values that fit in 16 bit variables. The usual way is to use DFSee to wipe the MBR and write a new one.
Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: karotlopj on May 05, 2016, 08:47:59 am
Hi John

Maybe if you go through the steps you are taking in trying to create a partition/volume someone will spot the problem.


I am currently using two disks.

Disk 1 is a 60GB disk which has Boot Manager and two partitions, both of which have OS/2 installed, one of them being just a  minimal partition for recovery purposes.

Disk 2 is a 320GB disk where I want to install BM, but am unable to do so, although I have created a 7MB Primary partition at the start of the disk where I hope to put it.

Disk 2 is only bootable via BM on Disk 1, so the question is how to get BM on Disk 2.
Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: Andi B. on May 05, 2016, 11:07:37 am
Sorry being offtopic but -
...
No, it is not the hardware.

If the JFS driver itself is not at fault then I suspect that the driver is exposing a problem .
Pete, I've to second the other Andreas - I am using Davids latest JFS build too on my main machine and some test machines without any problem. I've also followed your ticket and discussions about chkdsk. I've bootable JFS drives on nearly all my installations and no problems with that since years. For me it seems you're the only one having issues with JFS 1.09.06. No offend. But it seems there is something very special to -
a) your systems hardware or
b) your installations (combination of drivers, dlls ...?)

If it is a shutdown problem as mentioned above I would suggest to use the lastest xwp beta from ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/wlan/ (ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/wlan/) if not already installed.

Hope you can find out the root of the problem some time.

@John - the safest way for any partitioning is using dfsee. But the "Managing partition" tool included in the latest eCS2.2beta version will work too. As suggested use a small boot volume. 1GB is enough when you install your applications and data on other partitions. But if you decide to install the rpm stuff on your boot drive too (not recommended by me but the eCS2.2beta installer) then you need a much bigger boot partition. It is possible to make a big boot partition with JFS. But probably no one will suggest this to you. Do not use big HPFS partitions (more than a few GB). There is no reason or benefit doing this these days.

Regards, Andreas
Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: ivan on May 05, 2016, 12:28:57 pm
Regarding the JFS problem, I am wondering if it is a processor/northbridge problem.  If so then both sides are 'correct'.

Pete, Andi and others, could you post the CPU and chipset you are using and we may be able to lay this to rest.

John.
You can't have two instances of BootManager on the same machine. 
Use DFSee to remove the unwanted one and then install the new one where you want it.
Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: karotlopj on May 05, 2016, 02:42:46 pm
John.
You can't have two instances of BootManager on the same machine. 
Use DFSee to remove the unwanted one and then install the new one where you want it.

Ivan,

Believe me, you can have two instances of BootManager on one machine,  and when you do it gets very confusing, especially when you have two bootable C drives.

I'm not saying that you can install BM on more than one disk, but if you are using two disks with BM installed on both then they will remain. I'm not sure how BM reacts if it finds another BM on the system.
Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: Pete on May 05, 2016, 03:47:45 pm
Hi

@Andi B

The 2 laptops are Intel based and the 2 desktops are AMD based. There is not that much that is common across the hardware.

Both Desktops have multiple boot volumes.
Both laptops and 1 bootable installation on each Desktop have eCS2.2 installed, the other bootable installations on the Desktops are eCS2.1 with various upgrades applied to both.
None of the systems have DOS/Win16 support installed - I would be surprised if that made a difference.
None of the systems have the "lost volume at boot" problem - or problems forcing a chkdsk at boot - when using JFS-109.05

All systems have XWP installed.
Reading the readme at the url you supplied I see there may be a problem with earlier builds of XWP and current builds of ACPI with regard to shutdown. I will experiment with this build of XWP and JFS-1.09.06 to see if that "cures" the "lost volume at boot" problem. I will have to report back on this in a few days - or less if it obviously does not fix the problem.

If the latest XWP does fix the problem I would still not recommend JFS-1.09.06 to anyone using bootableJFS on a "headless" server. I hope David revises his view on the /AUTOCHECK:+ switch and reinstates it in future JFS releases.

A digression but a further thought on XWP: When using Restart Desktop the option "Process all XWorkplace Startup folders" is checked by default. I know from posts in various ngs - and possibly on os2world - that I am not the only person who uses 2 XWP Startup folders: 1 for items to run on system startup and 1 for items to run when the Desktop is restarted. Can I suggest the default for this option be changed to  Unchecked in the future?


Regards

Pete








Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: Pete on May 05, 2016, 04:27:01 pm
Hi John

The instance of BootManager on either the 1st disk or the disk selected as the boot disk in the BIOS settings is the instance that should appear. It may offer the BM on disk 2 as a bootable choice.


Regards

Pete

Title: Re: Installing OS/2 on 320GB disk
Post by: ivan on May 05, 2016, 07:53:07 pm
Hi John,

I was not as clear as I could have been regarding the number of BootManager instances on a machine.  I should have said that there can only be one 'active/startable' instance.  If there are more so marked then, as Pete says, it depends on the disk boot order as set in the bios which one is used, and even then there can be problems.